6 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9
Anytime you're pro-
posing an investment
to leadership as signif-
icant as a new full-
time position or, in our
case, a full-time nurse
and part-time tech
tandem, you need to go
in ready with hard data.
When we made our case to our president and chief nursing offi-
cer (CNO) about the need for the dedicated positions in anesthe-
sia, we made it crystal clear why the move was necessary — in
terms they were sure to understand. First, we got all of the key
stakeholders to come to the table. On top of the president and
CNO, I had our director of surgical services and one of our block
anesthesia providers there to present evidence-based data on why
what we were proposing was so critical.
And we leaned heavily a metric we knew would hit home with
our leadership: first case on-time starts (FCOTS). Ours were the
worst for our orthopedics department. Drilling down into the data
a little further, we were able to show that the reason our FCOTS
were so bad was because of all the delays to our regional blocks.
That sure got everybody's attention.
If you want leadership to buy into what you're proposing, start by
presenting evidence-backed data that's guaranteed to elicit some
type of visceral reaction in them.
— Amy Berardinelli, DNP, RN, CPAN, NE-BC
How to Justify a Block Coordinator
• KEY METRIC A well-run block program will boost your first case on-time starts.
MAKING THE ASK
